Andrea Melvin is a multifaceted financial manager with decades of experience providing accounting and financial analysis to small and mid-sized companies. She excels at organizing and automating financial record-keeping, dealing independently with banking establishments, and providing vital decision-making information to company executives.

She has an MBA from Clark and a BA from Boston College. She loves her time with her husband and their two children in their Airstream and out on the water, with or without their faithful dog, Brady.

Lara Durand’s life-long passion for helping at-risk children and youth started when she volunteered at her College After-School program. As Non-profit Plain Jaine Foundation Founder, her goal is to raise awareness and to advocate on behalf of these special people. She strives to lead volunteers and donors to share of our many blessings toward others during their moments of greatest need. She is a Life Long Connection Mentor for at risk youth in Foster Care and a volunteer panel member with the DCF Foster Care Review Board. With her past 10 years experience volunteering with at-risk youth in the Boston area, she is extremely skilled at educating and leading donors to maximize their positive impact.

Lara has over two decades of real estate development experience, managing large scale residential projects and overseeing investor funds. Her MBA from Boston College prepared her for management of operations for the Back Bay Development Group and management of her portfolio of independent real estate investments with her own company for the past eight years. Her passion is to give fully each day and to guide others to do the same. Lara lives in Wellesley with her husband, Mike, and lab, Freddie. When she isn’t working, Lara enjoys skiing, tennis, cooking and cheering on the Pats (and the Bruins!) or visiting her nieces and nephews.

Lara is thrilled to partner with Treasured Life Initiative and their mission of showing God’s love to others. “Whatever you have done for the least of these . . . you have done for Me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Melanie Sachs-Barton is a survivor of sexual trauma, but above all else, she is a survivor. She became passionate about walking alongside survivors of trafficking when she started her career as an advocate and was brought to her knees when she started hearing survivors’ stories. Melanie is passionate about bringing light into the darkness of abuse because she knows first hand the depth of pain left behind by that type of intimate violation, but also the empowerment and hope as a survivor who has experienced incredible healing by finding her voice and using her pain for purpose.

Melanie has spent over 10 years working with victims of crime ages two through adulthood as a Domestic Violence Crisis Center Advocate, a Child/Adolescent and Adult Victim Advocate in the NH and MA Court Systems, a family advocate for 5 years at a Child Advocacy Center, and a trained forensic interviewer of children. She has been a board member and volunteer for multiple non-profits including organizations such as Jasmine Grace Outreach/Bags of Hope and what was previously ‘Written On Your Heart’ making encouraging cards for survivors of human trafficking. Melanie has been speaking publicly about her own experiences to bring light into the darkness of abuse since 2014.

Since 2019 Melanie has been recognized and sought after as a dynamic national public speaker on the topics of Childhood Sexual Abuse and Sexual Assault, traveling around the country, being featured on blogs and podcasts to bring her message to many. She has worked with organizations (SHIELD task force, PAVE: Promoting Awareness Victim Empowerment, The Granite State Children’s Alliance, CAC’s of Tennessee) to develop survivor-informed content and is a member of SHIELD Task Force out of West Virginia’s Speakers Bureau. Melanie was awarded the “One with Courage Award” in 2020 by the Massachusetts Children’s Alliance. She has been part of many dynamic training sessions to enhance her ability to advocate for victims of crime. Melanie served on the Board for SHIELD WV and has assisted SHIELD as Training/Development Consultant in 2022.

Melanie is currently working as a subject matter expert consultant for The Zero Abuse Project and was a Barista at Great Awakening Coffeehouse in Hyannis. Melanie got married in 2022 and lives on Cape Cod with her husband, Jonathan, and their cat, Gunner. They welcomed their first child (a baby girl) into the world in June of 2023. Melanie aspires to inspire survivors and professionals as she speaks the truth about her own experiences and advocates for survivors in all capacities.